6.

"Ok, so let me get this straight," Beast Boy said, with his eyes closed, shaking his head a little, "The thing that has been sucking the cats of the city dry...is a vampire?" Now his eyes were wide, and aimed straight at Raven, who was slowly nursing a cup of tea.

"In a word...yes." She took another sip.

"And you brought it to the tower!" Raven looked up from her tea, a small fire burning behind her eyes. She quickly corralled the flash of anger.

"Her name is Cerise, she isn't an 'it'. And yes I brought her here."

"Ok ok ok, let's calm down," Robin said, stepping between them, "where is it now?"

" She is in my room, having something to eat. I'll go get her in a few minutes."

"Eat!" Beast Boy had his hands coiled into his hair, pulling a part down its middle.

"Don't ask...and don't worry, no one is in danger." Raven said, ever calmly.

"How can you be sure?" Cyborg asked. He'd been keeping relatively quiet, but clearly shared much of the rest of the groups concern.

"Trust me." Raven said simply. With that she stood, largely ignoring the rest of the group. She suddenly felt that they were all ignorant of some strange fact just then, certainly the way they called Cerise an 'it' proved that.

"Raven," Robin said. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What are you planning on doing with her?"

Raven stopped and thought about it for a moment. Really she'd been thinking about it since she'd agreed to bring Cerise to the tower. Sure, it's safer than the street's, but what's the next step?

"I'm not sure..." She continued out of the room, "...but I'll let you all know when I figure it out." She left, without looking back.

"Dude...can you believe this?" Beast Boy was still trying to get a grip on the situation. He'd seen a lot of weird things, but he'd never once thought he'd have a vampire sitting a few rooms away from him.

"Well, Raven seems to be taking it in stride," Robin said, "all we can do is trust her to see it through." Cyborg and Beast Boy seemed satisfied with that. Still a little perturbed, but satisfied.

Outside the main room, Raven walked down the hall towards her room, where she'd left Cerise to feed. Her mind was still trying to catch up to reality, which was decidedly difficult. She was finding it very hard to accept that she had a vampire sucking blood out of little bags in her room, but what she found even harder to accept, is that she was quickly starting to feel very deeply for the little girl. Perhaps looking into those huge, liquid eyes of hers had taken its tole, or maybe she could relate to Cerise's situation (Raven thought, in passing, that it was rather a combination of the two), but she was beginning to intensely desire some sort of happy ending to whatever this was turning into. Starfire rounded a corner in front of her.

"Raven, greetings!" She smiled wide enough to force her eyes half way shut.

"Ummm...hi." Raven said without stopping.

"Is it true that there is a visitor in the tower?"

"Kind of...yes." Starfire began floating behind Raven, who still hadn't stopped walking. Starfire was in her usual good mood, but could sense there was something bugging Raven.

"Is...there something the matter?" She asked, flying and landing in front of Raven.

Raven contemplated her answer. After a couple of moments she decided that, though Starfire was sometimes overly chatty, and usually concerned with things like love and friendship and all that gushy stuff, she was probably the easiest to talk to out of all the Titans.

"Our new 'friend'...I'm not sure what to do with her..."

"Well...who is she?"

Raven explained the whole situation, and realized that doing so meant she would have to explain just what a vampire was, which was harder than it sounded. After it was all over, Starfire looked like she was deep in thought, which Raven thought, for Starfire, was probably not a depth that anyone would consider impressive, but she never said anything.

"And you do not know who her father is?"

"No idea,"

"Well, she is welcome at the tower as long as needed..." Starfire wasn't sure why she had said that, since it was more or less a given, but she couldn't think of one other thing to say.

"Yes, but she has a family, a home, even if it is an evil place. If we keep her here, someone will come looking for her, and I don't think that someone is going to be very happy."

"Do you think we will have to protect her?" Starfire clasped her hands in front her, and sounded far too involved for the small amount of time she'd known about the situation. The question she'd asked was a valid one, though.

"From her father, yes, but I think we have to protect her from herself first."

"Well," Starfire took on a much more serious, dignified tone.

There's that alien princess coming forward Raven thought. A sentiment that was echoed in Starfire's next words; "we must do what we must do. If what Cerise needs is protection, we must offer protection. We cannot allow harm to come to her."

Yes, that was damn right. Starfire certainly had her moments.

"Yeah...thanks." Raven looked up from the floor, and offered Starfire the smallest smirk. Even as she was doing it, Starfire was switching back to a big smile. When she spoke again, it was with a reassuring, warm voice.

"You must bring Cerise out to meet us when she is ready!" Raven had a brief flash of what that would look like, then tried to put it out of her mind. That meeting was inevitable, but what the group thought of something they so poorly understood, something that until recently they were sure only existed in movies and books. Raven made no verbal reply to Starfire, but nodded and continued to walk. Her room was close by, she only hoped Cerise had finished doing what she had to, Raven wasn't sure if she could take seeing a nine year old girl drinking blood from IV bags.

7.

Cerise had indeed finished.

The first thing Raven saw when she got into her room was the open metal briefcase with two empty little bags beside it. They were in the small rectangle of light created by the hall light washing in through the door. Cerise was only visible as a silhouette in the darkness, she had her knees drawn up to her chest and was leaning against the side of Raven's bed.

"How was the...food?" Raven tried to sound as cordial as she could, but quickly realized that she'd yet to figure out how to properly shed that monotone drone her voice normally took on. For her part, Cerise made no reply, and barely even moved.

"Are you ok Cerise?" Without realising it, Raven made her voice deeply compassionate just then, and a swell of that new feeling for Cerise washed over her. Before she spoke, Cerise sniffed, the way one does when one has been crying.

"No...I'm fine." Raven stepped past the threshold of the room, and the door slid shut, casting the room into total darkness. Normally this would have suited Raven just fine, but now she needed to be able to see, she somehow felt the need for more light. She reached out with her mind, to a box of matches she kept on a shelf behind her bed. With a thought, she struck it to life, and moved it to a few candles she had throughout the room. Thus illuminated, the room looked even eerier than when it had been totally dark, but at least Cerise was visible.

"Why don't I believe you?" Raven took a few steps towards Cerise, who still wasn't moving.

"I'm ok..." Cerise said, sniffing again. She brought the palm of one hand to her cheek and wiped it dry. New tears fell to the cheek, and Cerise moved her hand back to its previous position, wrapped tightly around her knees. Raven walked to Cerise, and got down on her knees in front of the girl.

"It's going to be ok, Cerise. I don't know what's going on here, but whatever it is I won't let your father get you. Not while you're here."

"Do you promise?" That, Raven thought, could be filed with those phrases Cerise said that proved, that beyond the fangs and severe bloodlust, she was still a young girl, largely afraid of everything.

"Absolutely." Raven said, quite sincerely. Cerise darted forward and wrapped her arms around Raven's shoulders. Before Raven could even register the discomfort she normally felt in such a situation, she felt Cerise's shaking, felt her chest heaving from the act of crying, felt the dampness of Cerise's cheek against her own. Without even thinking, Raven returned the embrace, lightly stroking the back of Cerise's head, matting down her impossibly black hair.

"It's ok, Cerise, you're safe here," she almost whispered into the young vampire's ear. It was then that Raven realised that this was the first time she'd really seen Cerise's back. She realised this, because the back of the dress Cerise wore was a field of slashes, all horizontal, but some on slight angles. Beneath that, glowing orange in the light of the candles – and to Raven's horror – her skin was similarly scarred.

"Oh...my..." Raven moved her hand to the slash marks in the fabric, moved her hands across the little bumps the scars created.

"...daddy..." Cerise whispered sadly into Raven's ear.

Raven suddenly felt a hollow sadness, mixed with a horrible, encompassing anger for whoever this bastard father of hers was.

A moment later, Raven's door slid open, sending a wash of light into the room. From the silhouette, Raven could tell it was Cyborg at the door.

"Yo, hate to interrupt, but there's something out here you gotta see." He left the threshold immediately, but Raven stayed on her knees holding Cerise for a few moments longer.

"It'll be ok, I'll be right back," Raven said, but neither of them moved for a moment.

"I don't want to be alone..." Cerise whispered, half cried. Raven didn't have to think long about this.

"Ok," she said, standing. When she was up, she took Cerise's hand in her own. "You don't ever have to be alone, not here." With one more reassuring glance, Raven started to walk out of the room. Cerise stayed very close to her, as they both made their way to the main foyer, where the rest of the group was gathered.

8.

"What's the matter?" Raven asked, back to her usual montone.

"One of those dignitary guys is on the TV," Cyborg replied, without looking away from the large screen which dominated the room. Raven didn't see the great significance in this, they'd been on and off the TV since they got to Jump City six days ago. Starfire was the first to notice Cerise, who was holding onto Raven's hand with an ever increasing vice grip.

"Oh, is this our little guest?" She asked tenderly.

"Yes. Everyone," Raven waited until they were all turned around. "This is Cerise." Raven looked down and tried to look as comforting as possible, but with the scrutinizing gaze of the whole team upon her, Cerise was turning a quite pure shade of red. Raven squeezed Cerise's little hand, which seemed to help a little.

"So why do I need to see this dignitary? What makes him so special."

"What happened to him earlier today. Apparently, he was attacked by what he called 'thugs'," Robin replied, forcing himself to pull his gaze away from Cerise.

"And now, we bring you live to a press conference held earlier this evening by Dignitary Gregori Ivanovich of Russia." The face of the reporter faded, and was replaced by the face of the dignitary in question, which loomed huge in the room.

Cerise's scream was like a cat's yelp. She ducked behind Raven and pulled Raven's cloak around her like a security blanket.

"Cerise!" Raven cried out as the force with which her cloak was pulled spun her half way around, and almost to her knees. "What's wrong?"

"It's my father! It's daddy!"